Caller's discussion list <callers at sharedweight.net> on Monday, February 4,
2008 at 9:09 PM +0000 wrote:
>I'm reorganizing my dance cards
...
>The dance that's most puzzling to me right now is Mary Cay's Reel
I often sort my dances by storyline, so for me the defining move of Mary
Cay's is that the women do something special WITH EACH OTHER, while the
men look on/cheer.
There is a very specific social thing that happens at moments like this -
( other examples: "ladies down center 2 by 2 with each other" or "men
gypsy each other" ) - when one gender displays and the other watches
(and BOY does that other gender like to watch sometime!)
so Mary Cay's, for me, goes in the "Gender Fun" category.
Other categories include "Where did my partner go - wait, how did you end
up THERE?" and "Look at me aren't I cool?"
We all get caught sometimes - we just can't seem to find a next dance that
doesn't repeat the previous one in some way - the same starting move, the
same progression, yet aNOTHer down-the-hall-in-lines-of-four.
At moments like this, I often opt to go for the dance with the most
different "storyline" or "social structure", and ask the band for a
contrasting tune type, in the (perhaps naive) belief that the dancers
won't notice repeating move so much if, say, the first one struts and the
second one slinks.
Cheers,
Amy